OAKLAND, Calif. — There is plenty of evidence that says Broncos fans just watched the greatest offensive team, and the best single-season quarterback performance in NFL history.

While whipping the moribund Oakland Raiders, 34-14, Sunday on a warm, bright, late December afternoon in the final game of the regular season, Peyton Manning and the Broncos finished off breaking all the significant passing and scoring records.

In the regular season. Now comes the single-elimination tournament that is the NFL postseason. The Broncos are heavy favorites to win the AFC title. But Broncos fans have heard that before.

"We got to stamp it," said Broncos receiver Eric Decker. "No question. This is like the first chapter of our season. It was big for us that we set ourselves up for success. Now we have to make sure we take care of business. This is when it really counts."

Manning needed only the first half to complete 25-of-28 passes for 266 yards and four touchdowns while building a 31-0 lead. He went into the intermission with 55 touchdown passes and 5,477 passing yards for the season.

The NFL has been around since 1920, or 93 years. No quarterback has done better. The previous TD passing record was 50, set by New England's Tom Brady in 2007 and surpassed by Manning last week. The previous yardage mark was 5,476, set by New Orleans' Drew Brees in 2011.

And Manning's Broncos also finished with 606 points, breaking by plenty the old mark of 589 set by Brady's Patriots of 2007.

"I'll tell you it's a fun group of guys to play with," Manning said. "It's been a fun unit to meet with, practice with, watch tape with, work after practice with. I've really enjoyed the coaches and the players on offense."

For all of these accomplishments to be remembered through time, though, the Broncos' work is far from finished. The 2007 Patriots did not go down as the best team in NFL history, despite their 16-0 regular-season record and offensive prowess.

There are numbers on a stat page and record book. And there are discussions around the water cooler and radio sports channels.

If the Broncos win the Super Bowl this season, they should go down as the undisputed best offensive team in history. Manning will have validated his greatness with the league's most prolific passing season.

But if the Broncos fall short in the postseason, they would be like Greg Norman, a great golfer known for struggling in the majors.

"This is why you work hard in the offseason, this is why you lift weights and have the offseason programs to give yourself an opportunity to play in the postseason," Manning said.

The Broncos were thought to be a great team at this time a season ago. They had won 11 in a row heading into the postseason. And then they lost one in a row. This entire season was played, and played exceedingly well, while lugging around their 38-35 overtime playoff loss to Baltimore last January.

"It's not easy to go back-to-back 13-3s," Broncos coach John Fox said. "It's not easy to go back-to-back one seeds. Obviously, everybody in our building, our city, probably our region, maybe even the cvountry was disappointed how we finished a year ago. Hopefully that's been a fire in the belly, and most everybody in our building since that last January."

Indeed, the Broncos again have the No. 1 AFC playoff seed. They will get a bye through next week's first round, then will play Indianapolis, Kansas City or San Diego, whichever is the lowest seed, in the second round at 2:40 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Win that second-round game and the Broncos will play in the AFC championship — possibly against the No. 2 seeded Patriots or No. 3 seeded Cincinnati Bengals — again in front of their home fans on Jan. 19.

Win that game and the Broncos will play in Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2 in the New Jersey Meadowlands' MetLife Stadium.

Win that game and Manning and the Broncos can stake their claim as the greatest offensive team in NFL history. All they could do Sunday, and through the now-completed 16-game regular season, was put themselves in position.

"On the players part, we have had a number of distractions, injuries, on the field situations, off-the-field situations," Manning said. "It's a season unlike any other for me as far as having your head coach is ill, you have an interim for a while, the injuries we've had, we've had the offseason — those things have been well-documented — for the players we've kept our focus on doing the players' jobs."

Manning needed only two quarters to cap his historic regular season, and give backup Brock Osweiler his most significant playing time in two years. On his first drive, Manning zipped a 3-yard touchdown pass to Decker. After breaking the touchdown pass record the previous week in Houston, Manning extended it with No. 52.

No. 53 was a flip to running back Knowshon Moreno, who finished off the 7-yard score by waltzing through the no-fight Raiders.

Manning then saved arguably his most beautiful pass of the season for the second quarter, when he heaved a long one down the middle of the field to Demaryius Thomas, who caught it in stride and finished off the 63-yard score. That was No. 54.

With seconds remaining in the first half, Manning needed 5 yards to break Brees' yardage record. The ball just happened to be on the Raiders' 5-yard line. Manning connected with Demaryius Thomas for a 5-yard touchdown pass. That gave him TD No. 55 and yardage No. 5,477.

All the records were in the books and the game was in the bank. A fifth MVP is certain to hit Manning's trophy case. He couldn't have done much more in the regular season.

Manning and the Broncos have so much more work to do in the postseason.

"Talk to me in February," Decker said, "and I'll let you know how fun it was."